One Big Boom!

It's really hard to fathom what happened here 75,000 years ago. It was the largest volcanic explosion in the last million years. It poured so much ash into the atmosphere that it created a planet wide ice age. Scientists say that it wiped out all but a few thousand of a new species on earth...us. The few thousand humans that survived were our ancestors and were just starting their journey out of Africa. The gigantic blast created a crater that is 50 miles long by 20 miles wide and thousands of feet deep. Over the next few thousand years the crater partially filled with water and this is now Lake Toba, or Danau Toba in the local lingo.

If you have been to Crater Lake in Oregon, you know how impressive that is. Now imagine that times a thousand, or several thousand. The Toba blast was one of those earth shattering events that changed everything on our planet.

But now it's a tourist Mecca. It's a 4 hour ride from Medan, the main town in the area, to here. Then you take a 1/2 hour ferry ride over to Tuk Tuk. Beautiful views surround you as you go across the water. The cliffs surrounding the lake are 3,000 feet high and the lake is so long you can't see the other side as it dips below the horizon.

In the middle of the lake is a huge island, called Samosir. On this is a little peninsula, Tuk Tuk. It is here that we are staying at the Carolina Hotel. We have a room located in a copy of an old Batak house. The Batak are the indigenous people from here. They are mostly Christian and do some beautiful art work especially wood carving. Our room looks out over the lake and is next to a huge banyan tree with lots of arial roots. The banyan tree is considered sacred by the Batak and this one reminds me of the beautiful trees on Banyan Drive in Hilo.

The room itself is a bit 'long in the tooth' and could use a bit of a cleanup. The walls are a dark wood and the one ceiling light is about 40 watts, so it's a quite dark. The hot water goes on and off constantly and that can be a bit annoying. But who cares? It's so nice here that little things like that don't matter.

We are here a few days before Chinese New Year and it is very quiet. There are very few tourists and our hotel is probably 1/10th full. But in a few days, Chinese people will be coming from all over South East Asia and this hotel and most others will be filled. Prices will quadruple. Now, our room with a comfy king size bed, a huge lanai, nice furniture and a great view over the lake is $20 per night. We just had lunch down the street; grilled lake fish with spicy sauce, chicken soup, vegetable soup, water and two amazing Sumatra coffees...$6.

I just took a swim in the lake and, while I'm not an expert on water temperature, I'd say it's around 68 or 70 degrees. There must still be a heat source of some kind way down below. There are all sorts of little fish swimming around and the views of the surrounding cliffs are amazing. The ferries are going by every few minutes and everyone gives a wave. It's truly one of the most remarkable places I've ever been!